Traditionally, surgical devices have been hand operated, with the force to fire and/or manipulate the instruments provided directly by the clinician. A growing number of surgical instruments, however, are powered surgical instruments where the force to fire and/or manipulate the instrument are provided by an automated device, such as an electric motor, pneumatic or hydraulic device, etc. Examples of powered surgical instruments may include such as cutters, graspers, and/or staplers, for example. Such powered instruments free instrument designers from the need to limit the amount of force required to fire to that which can reasonably be provided by a human clinician. Powered instruments may also be more easily used by smaller clinicians and/or clinicians with less physical strength.
One significant challenge of powered instruments, however, is lack of feedback to the clinician. When a clinician uses a manually powered surgical instrument, the clinician is able to know the state of the instrument based on the amount of force that the clinician has already provided to the instrument, the position of the handle trigger or other device for receiving clinician force, etc. In a powered instrument, however, such feedback may be absent. Accordingly, there is a need to compensate for the lack of feedback from powered surgical instruments.